BACKGROUND: Lions Outback Vision has run a state-wide teleophthalmology service since 2011. In September 2015 the Australian federal government introduced a Medicare reimbursement for optometry-facilitated teleophthalmology consultations under specific circumstances. This audit demonstrates the first 12 months experience with this scheme. We aim to provide practical insights for others looking to embed a telemedicine program as part of delivering outreach clinical services. METHODS: A 12-month retrospective audit was performed between September 2015 and August 2016, inclusive...

BACKGROUND: There is a common perception that total thyroidectomy causes weight gain beyond expected age-related changes, even when thyroid replacement therapy induces a euthyroid state. The aim of this study was to determine whether patients who underwent total thyroidectomy for a wide spectrum of conditions experienced weight gain following surgery. METHODS: We retrospectively studied 107 consecutive total thyroidectomy patients treated between January 2013 and June 2014...

Deep infiltrating endometriosis (DIE) is the most severe form of endometriosis. It causes chronic pelvic pain, severe dysmenorrhea, deep dyspareunia, dyschezia, and dysuria, markedly impairing the quality of life of women of reproductive age. A number of randomized controlled trials on surgical and medical treatments to reduce the pain associated with endometriosis have been reported, but few have focused on this in DIE. DIE causes not only pain but also functional invasion to the urinary organs and bowel, such as hydronephrosis and bowel stenosis...

Injury to the posterolateral corner (PLC) of the knee can lead to both varus and rotational instability. Multiple PLC reconstruction techniques have been described, including one-tailed graft (fibula-based constructs) or two-tailed graft (combined fibula- and tibia-based constructs). The purpose of our study was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of anatomical two-tailed graft reconstruction of the PLC in the setting of multiligament knee injuries (MKLIs) with grade III varus instability. Patients were identified through a prospective MLKI database between 2004 and 2013...

BACKGROUND: In judo, rapid force production during pulling movements is an important component of athletic performance, which is why this capacity needs to be specifically exercised in judo. This study aimed at examining the effects of a judo-specific resistance training program using a judo ergometer system (PTJ) versus a traditional resistance training regime using a partner (PTP) on kinetics and muscle activity of judo-specific pulling exercises. METHOD: Twenty-four male judo athletes (age: 22 ± 4 years, training experience: 15 ± 3 years) were randomly assigned to two groups...

BACKGROUND: Patient portals specifically designed for the inpatient setting have significant potential to improve patient care. However, little is known about how the users of this technology, the patients, may interact with the inpatient portals. As a result, hospitals have limited ability to design approaches that support patient use of the portal. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to evaluate the user experience associated with an inpatient portal. METHODS: We used a Think-Aloud protocol to study user interactions with a commercially available inpatient portal-MyChart Bedside (MCB)...

BACKGROUND: Adults aged 85 and older, often referred to as the oldest-old, are the fastest-growing segment of the population. The rapidly increasing number of older adults with chronic and multiple medical conditions poses challenges regarding their driving safety. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of advanced age on driving safety in drivers with medical conditions. METHODS: We categorized 3,425 drivers with preexisting medical conditions into four age groups: middle-aged (55-64 years, n = 1,386), young-old (65-74 years, n = 1,013), old-old (75-84 years, n = 803), or oldest-old (85 years and older, n = 223)...

We present a new approach to arsenic (As) risk assessment using biomonitoring. In this pilot study we determined the levels of total and speciated urinary arsenicin 109 Spanish school children aged between 6 and 11 years, and interpreted these concentrations in a risk assessment context. The geometric mean (GM) for total As (TAs) was 33.82 μ/L. The order of occurrence and average concentrations of the different species was arsenobetaine (AsB) (100%, 15 μg/L), dimethylarsinic (DMA) (97%, 8.32 μg/L), monomethylarsonic (MMA) (26%, 0...

INTRODUCTION: Emergency vehicles, such as police, ambulances, and fire vehicles, need to arrive at the scene of emergencies as quickly as possible, and thus they often travel in emergency mode - using their lights and sirens and often bypassing traffic signals. We examined whether travelling in emergency mode increased crash risk among police, ambulance and fire vehicles. METHODS: We conducted a quasi-induced exposure analysis using data from the Iowa Crash Database for the period of 2005 through 2013...

BACKGROUND: Although burnout is a widespread phenomenon among healthcare professionals, there are no studies about its prevalence in Ecuador. This study assesses the prevalence of burnout syndrome among Ecuadorian healthcare professionals and examine the relationship with their personal and organizational characteristics. METHODS: A total of 2404 healthcare professionals (average age 40.0years; 68.4% women) from the capitals of all 24 provinces in Ecuador participated in this study...

Alteration in permeability of blood-brain barrier (BBB) is of immense importance in the pathogenesis of diabetes-related central nervous system disorders. Considering the presence of glycated insulin in plasma of type 2 diabetic patients, we hypothesized that glycated insulin could induce changes in paracellular permeability in BBB. Therefore, the authors decided to study the effect of glycated insulin on paracellular permeability in a BBB model. Furthermore, the change induced in insulin conformation upon glycation was studied...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Admission procedures for recruiting students to medical school vary considerably across the world. Notwithstanding such variability, it is important to know what skills and attributes are required of the students by their teachers on entering medical school. PROCEDURES: Anatomists are often the teachers who first meet the students as they enter medical school and this report analyses, by means of a questionnaire, the putative skills required of their medical students by anatomists from the U...

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to explore vertical binocular coordination in dyslexic and non-dyslexic children during saccades and post-saccadic fixation period while reading a text. METHODS: Binocular eye movements were recorded by an infrared system (Mobile T2 ® , SuriCog) in thirty-six dyslexic children from 7.3 to 13.6 years of age (mean age: 10.6 ± 0.3 years) who were asked to silently read a four-line text during binocular viewing. Data were compared to those of thirty-six age-matched non-dyslexic children...

Obesity has been associated with atopic dermatitis (AD), however the results have been conflicting. Our aim was to provide an update on current knowledge from observational studies addressing the possible association between obesity and AD. Systematic literature review was performed by identifying studies addressing a possible link between AD and overweight/obesity from PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA)-guidelines...

INTRODUCTION: Cyclosporine and methotrexate are the two preferred first-line immunosuppressive treatments in atopic dermatitis. The aim of this study was to compare the treatment profiles of methotrexate and cyclosporine in daily practice as the first-line immunosuppressive treatment in atopic dermatitis, using two survival analyses, "drug survival" (time on the drug) and "post-drug survival" (time between two drugs). METHODS: Retrospective study including patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis treated with methotrexate or cyclosporine as the first-line immunosuppressive treatment...

AIM: Our aim was perform an in-depth analysis of the composition of fatty acids in milk from mothers delivering extremely preterm babies. We investigated longitudinal changes in milk fatty acid profiles and the relationship between several types of fatty acids, including omega-3 and omega-6. METHODS: Milk samples were collected at three stages of lactation from 78 mothers who delivered at less than 28 weeks of pregnancy at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden, from April 2013 to September 2015...

AIMS: To: (1)identify clusters of nurses in relation to their beliefs about nursing diagnosis among two populations (Italian and Spanish); (2) to investigate differences among clusters of nurses in each population considering the nurses' sociodemographic data, attitudes towards nursing diagnosis, intentions to make nursing diagnosis and actual behaviors in making nursing diagnosis. BACKGROUND: Nurses' beliefs concerning nursing diagnosis can influence its use in practice but this is still unclear...